The Big Move..

(Four Seasons of Ukraine: A Study of Constrasts.

...actually it's the million-kopek view from my balcony this winter.)

26/12/06

I have been at my permanent site for four days now. Verkhnedneprovsk (or VP as I’m fond of calling it) is a city of 18,000 with clean wide streets, warm people, and a shining golden statue of Lenin in the central square. Last night I finally hunkered down and learned how to spell VP (no, the whole word) in Ukrainian, which is quite different than the transliterated version in the Roman alphabet. Then of course there’s the Russian version…but let’s not get into politics (here, that is politics).

Today was my second day at school, and just as classes are winding down for the holidays, the annual holiday show/recital thing was just warming up. Today was the big day, so all the parents and teachers crowded into our little gymnasium to watch 50 little 8-yr olds dance around in gnome and Santa costumes (and the occasional cowboy and witch, but somehow they didn’t stick out in the crowd). They also sang the Russian hokey-pokey and had banana and yogurt-eating contests. I should have taken some pictures. The gym was really decked out, with five New Year’s trees set up in the background, and banners and lights hanging from the walls. The banners read ‘To the New Year’ in big block letters, which reminded me of the holiday things we did back in elementary school, such as spelling ‘Merry Christmas’, having each kid wear a letter. Yet I distinctly remember being the ‘N’. And I only remember spelling out ‘Merry Christmas’. Having a ‘Happy New Year’ formation would have made much more sense if I really was the letter ‘N’. If I figure this one out, I’ll be sure to update the blog. I also wonder if ‘Merry Christmas’ is still being spelled out at my school…

22/12/06

Training is over. I am quite happy about that. I, along with 98 other trainees, have been sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer by the US ambassador to Ukraine. I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States So Help Me God. I do need more ammo, so if you could send some my way that would be great- I can’t fend them off for too much longer. Why don’t they put this precious Constitution somewhere out of harm’s way and not in the middle of rural Ukraine?

30/11/06

About two weeks ago all of us Ukraine Group 31-ers packed our bags, left our training sites, and convened once again at the old Soviet retreat center, Prolisok. It was time to find out where we were going to live for the next two years. This was no small event, and given the geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity of the country, we had no idea what to expect of our future sites. Some of us would be speaking Ukrainian, some of us would be speaking Russian, and many of us would be speaking a hybrid of the two, known as Sourzhik. Some of us would even be speaking languages closer to Romanian and Polish. We could be placed in the flat industrial east of the country, or the picturesque, hilly west. Or, if we were especially lucky, we could be sent to the Crimea, a warm peninsula on the southern end of the country that has been inhabited by ancient Greeks, Romans, Russians, Tartars, and all sorts of fun-loving people. “Crimea…it’s not California…but it’s daaammn close” said one current volunteer before the presentation of our sites. Needless to say a lot of people had their fingers crossed for this place called Crimea, although many can now attest that it is absolutely nothing like California, given the widespread lack of gas and indoor plumbing.

It was time to present us our sites. This is arguably one of the biggest deals in Peace Corps. The auditorium was tense. Out of ~100 PCVs, I was about the 96^th to be called up. Note: if you can’t pronounce my town, you can’t come visit. But here goes: Verkhnedneprovsk. It’s in the ‘state’ (oblast) of Dnipropetrovsk. So altogether it’s Verkhnedneprovsk, Dnipropetrovski Oblast. Got it? Good. Just kidding, I can barely say these two words myself. They will henceforth be known as VP and DP. It’s in the eastern/central part of the country, about six hours southeast of Kiev by overnight train (the best way to travel in these parts). It’s on the Dnepr River, one of the longest in Europe, which also flows through Kiev. So although I didn’t get the Crimea, I do have a beach about 15 minutes from my apartment! VP and the Dnepr are only separated by one long earthen dyke that prevents said river from flooding over the town. Sound familiar? Well, lucky for all Verkhnedneprovskians, there are no hurricanes in these parts, and the dyke looks pretty solid. After site announcements (the day after to be precise) Peace Corps sticks you on a train and whisks you away to your future home for a four-day site visit. If by this time you haven’t learned how to roll with it, you are not fit for Peace Corps service. So the next day it was off to VP to meet my new host family, see my new school, and teach a class or two. I couldn’t have had a more successful visit in my eyes. I had a great time and couldn’t wait to go back. But having taken the overnight train, I am most proud of the fact that I managed to get off the train at the right stop, considering I had been sleeping all night in the cramped compartment and needed to get up at 5:30AM to start to pay attention to the stops. This, in Ukraine, translates as pressing your nose to the window in the pitch black of night and trying to make out the unlit stations signs that are passing by at high speed in a foreign alphabet. None of this actually helps, considering you know the name of one station- your station- and the other signs offer no clues as to your proximity to that one station you’re looking out for. Stops are not often announced. Your stop is more an intuitive thing, if you’re lucky enough to be from these parts. Naturally, some of the best Peace Corps Ukraine stories involve jumping out of a moving train onto a derelict and unmarked platform in the middle of nowhere on a dark and rainy night because you thought it might have been your station and made a very poor split-second decision. But if you’re lucky, another train will come within two hours or so and pick you up. I myself been lucky enough so far, but I hope it catches up with me soon.

This is what I am doing now

31-10-06

Oh, I see from the date inscribed above that it's Halloween. It was about to pass unnoticed (Halloween lessons done and over with at school!). Anyways, since I've been here a month now, I feel it safe to walk you through A Day in the Life Of…me. Or, any Peace Corps Trainee here in Kalynivka, Ukraine. This number now stands at four. The other ~100 volunteers are training in other towns around Kyiv, but despite the fact that we are the biggest Peace Corps program in the world (PC Ukraine) and also the biggest Peace Corps project (we're all TEFL volunteers [Teaching English as a Foreign Language]), training is a relatively isolated experience. The nearest training group is about an hour away by train. However, we maintain our sanity by meeting our other volunteer friends in Kyiv most Sundays and exploring the ancient cave monasteries and not-so-ancient internet cafes of the capital city.. oh yeah, my day..

-Get up. Wash face with glacially cold water (hot water heater is turned on a few times a week for baths only). But I have finally found something to wake me up in the morning.

-Break fast. Breakfast in Ukraine is what was not eaten at dinner the night before. The first time you come down the stairs and see that plateful of mashed potatoes (with mayonnaise on top) waiting for you on the table, it does register as a shock. I already knew I liked breakfast for dinner, but I didn't think I might warm up to the idea of dinner for breakfast (I certainly have). So my favorite breakfast is borscht. My favorite dinner is also borscht. If you've never tried a decent bowl of borscht, go find one. Don't forget the commemorative dollop of high-quality sour cream. You won't be disappointed. I always thought I had a weak stomach in the morning (early consumption of coffee has proven that to me in the past), but now I actually look forward to my bowl of soup at 8:00AM. Or my veal cutlets or whatever. However, I also have a least-favorite breakfast: a plateful of cheese with 3 teaspoons of sugar sprinkled on top, those mashed potatoes with mayonnaise, slices of pure pig fat wrapped around cloves of raw garlic and…vodka to wash it down. It happens. Vodka is appropriate for many occasions throughout the day, but I will draw the line at breakfast.

-Walk to school. It's likely gray and very foggy outside. It it's windy, more fog is blown in. If it's been snowing, you better watch it. Snow is not removed from the streets and sidewalks, it is pounded into something much more solid in the hopes that it might disappear altogether. Within a day or two, that pristine layer of snow on the road will resemble pack ice, so seriously, watch it. Especially on the bridge over the train tracks, which must be crossed on the way to school. This bridge might have been built in the '40s, and is composed of slippery, rickety, wooden steps of all shapes and sizes. As you cross it you have many opportunities to look through the cracks and gaps at the ground 40 ft. (~13m) below. If you make it across the bridge, the worst of your day is over.

-Walk into school. Students of all sizes will inundate you with 'hullo!'s and then run away giggling. You are nothing short of a celebrity and will occasionally be required to sign autographs, although the novelty is going to wear very quickly. Go to class and teach. Usually a very exciting and fulfilling experience. Hopefully the heat will be on.

-Leave school, go to intensive Russian language class. Four hours of фцшнеупи and зйёрюбцщрпнкщ, which are not real words, but most of the time you can't tell that. Work on community projects, language projects, assessment forms, mandatory journals, language tutoring, technical tutoring, homework…

-Finally go home to your host family. By then it is 5:00 or so, and close to pitch black outside. The color/shade is really very close to that of pitch, because there are no streetlights in this town, and it is likely still overcast. So if you can find your way home then this is will be a really really good time of the day, because you love your host family. At least I do. But that's not hard to do that in Ukraine. Ukrainians, from an American perspective, are overwhelmingly hospitable. One would expect an initial awkwardness in a situation such as this- I am in a new country and new culture with very limited language ability (hopefully not so limited anymore), but I am part of this family and will be so forever. Home is a much-needed respite when training becomes tedious and irksome, or maybe that's just me becoming irksome... anyways it melts at our front door. So then I eat a spectacular dinner (hopefully starts with borscht [it did tonight!]), play with the kitties (sadly, this little kitty is about to go to market), plan lessons, make flashcards, read book, fall asleep and repeat.


I think I could have done better on my Day in the Life Of, but I gotta get this up on the site. Next edition: where I am going to live for the next two years!